In the End
by webofdreams89
Summary: Naruto knew, in the end, that it would come to this.


o.O.o

In the End

o.O.o

Sasuke could have slapped himself. In fact, he was most sincerely tempted to if he could just get his hands loose. He couldn't really remember the last time he was this utterly disappointed in himself. It had been a long time since anyone had successfully captured him.

The only excuse he could use was that he got sloppy, overconfident and more than a little too cocky.

But despite all this, the thing he simply could not figure out was _how the hell he was still alive._ He should have been dead; the rogue ninja would have finished an unconscious enemy in less than an instant. The enemy, he wasn't the type to get sentimental, to let you live if he saw you as anything of a threat.

Sasuke had heard about him and his powerful jutsus, had heard tales of how escape was impossible. The guy was so fast that they called him the Phantom.

Yet here he was, breathing steadily, his heart still pumping blood to and fro through his veins. He could feel bandages wrapped tightly around his middle, belying the true extent of his injuries.

Without opening his eyes, Sasuke tried assessing the extent of the situation. He could sense another in the dim room, chakra masked. The Phantom was sitting perhaps four feet away, not really trying to disguise his physical presence.

"You can open your eyes, Sasuke," a wholly familiar voice said to him. "You're not nearly as good at pretending as you always seemed to think you were."

_Naruto._

Cautiously, Sasuke opened his dark eyes, taking in the tiny room, the small lantern and bags strewn throughout. Lastly, he gazed at Naruto, who was sitting cross-legged in front of him.

"So you're the Phantom," Sasuke said despite his dry and raspy throat. "I really should have known."

"There's that Uchiha arrogance again. You think that there's just no way the Phantom could be little Naruto Uzumaki, class clown and resident dead last. Yet when you discover that I _am_ the Phantom, you tell yourself that you subconsciously knew all along."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted noncommittally, bracing himself as he tried to sit up. It was a painful ordeal, daggers shooting through obviously broken ribs. He didn't care. There was no way he would continue sitting when the enemy, when _Naruto_, was sitting up.

He saw Naruto jerk just the slightest bit, as if he wanted to rush forward to help Sasuke up, but restrained himself, continued letting Sasuke struggle until he sat slightly hunched over, cross-legged in front of Naruto.

"So it looks like you finally won," Sasuke said, uncharacteristically conversational. "You said you'd bring me back all along and now you finally have."

"Not yet," Naruto said, his voice empty and lacking that all too familiar lilt of happiness, of whatever it was that made Naruto sound like Naruto. "We haven't made it back to the Leaf Village yet. You're injuries were too great to move you."

"So we're still just in the middle of nowhere. In a little house you found," Sasuke surmised, taking another brief glance around the tiny building.

"Yes and no. We are still nearby to where our battle took place, but I didn't find shelter. I created it."

"Naruto," Sasuke began scoffingly, "the wood of this building is old. There is no way you created it."

"It's chakra," Naruto said simply. For a moment, Naruto's chakra walls relinquished, leaving them briefly exposed to the night air before reforming.

"Hn, it does seem as if you've come a long way," Sasuke conceded, not all that upset he'd been taken prisoner by the one person he vowed never to submit to, not like he thought he would be.

"That would be correct," Naruto replied, his blue eyes almost cold. Again, Sasuke observed that this Naruto was not the one he was used to. This one was a poor imitation, a rather lackluster copy with cooler tricks.

The two sat in silence for a few moments, not so subtly sizing each other up. "So," Sasuke began, "what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"I mean, why aren't you cheering, grinning, anything? You finally captured me. Why aren't I back in Konaha with my injuries healed by Tsunade or Sakura and awaiting trial?"

"Like I said earlier, your injuries are too severe to move you."

"You could have healed me though. If you had the chakra skill to create this building, surely you could have healed me."

"Of course I could have," Naruto replied noncommittally. "I just wanted to let you know how it feels."

And Naruto, in all of Sasuke's recollection of the ninja, was above all, not vengeful, especially not towards those he cared about most. He didn't play games, he didn't toy with those at his mercy.

"You wanted me to suffer as I have made you suffer?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto did not nod, did not answer. But Sasuke did not need an answer, he knew that it was true.

"Why? This isn't like you, Naruto."

"Like you would know anything about me anymore, Sasuke," Naruto snapped.

"Hn," Sasuke more or less agreed, finding Naruto's statement to be more and more true as the moments passed.

Naruto seemed to realize that he had let Sasuke get to him and worked to calm himself down. He counted backward from ten, counted sheep, counted the lives he had taken and, but some small miracle, he felt his anger dissipate.

"What about becoming Hokage?"

"What about it?" Naruto asked.

"How will you ever reach your dream if you've left Konaha, if you've become a rogue nin?"

"I'm not a rogue nin. And I never left Konaha, not really. They offered me Hokage, but I turned them down."

"What?" Sasuke said, astonished. He had not heard this and he considered himself to be very well versed in the goings on of the major countries. "Tsunade stepped down, offered you her old job, and you said _no_?"

"It didn't happen exactly like that," Naruto replied. "Tsunade left me her job in her will."

"Tsunade's dead?!" This was most unexpected. Sasuke had heard that she had been injured, but had heard nothing of her death, not even a whisper.

Naruto nodded. "She died protecting the village when Akatsuki attacked. She died with honor, with grace, just as my dad did."

Sasuke was dumbstruck. "But Akatsuki attacked Konaha more than three _years_ ago! The Phantom, I mean _you_, defeated them more than two years ago! How can the Hokage be dead for three years without anyone knowing about it? Just last week I heard she saved those orphans from the burning building in Wind Country."

"Fabricated. That was really Sakura," Naruto admitted. "There are some who know about it, of course."

"Gaara?" Sasuke guessed, knowing that Suna was about the only place that remained friendly with Konaha.

"Correct. Gaara knows, and a few of Konaha's elite."

"Sakura's posing as the Hokage then?"

"Sakura's job is to make people see Tsunade alive, pretending to be her often enough to keep away suspicion. Kakashi is the real Hokage now."

"I shouldn't be surprised by that," Sasuke admitted aloud. "But where do you fit into all of this? How are you _not_ a rogue nin?"

"There's a simple enough explanation for that, Sasuke. I made jounin just after Konaha was attacked."

"But you never even passed your chunin exam, Naruto. I wouldn't think country politics would have changed so much as to let you become jounin without completing your chunin exams."

"They haven't really, but Konaha was desperate. We were at war. And who was to deny the person who had defeated Pein and ______ the title of jounin? It was voted upon and I was given the title. Shortly after, I was offered Hokage because I was now the strongest in the village. Many of the elders didn't want me to be Hokage because of my age and inexperience, but a few advocated it. After all, my father had also been very young when he became Hokage and he had ended up being the greatest leader Konaha has ever know."

"So the Forth Hokage really was your father? I had always wondered…"

"But I turned it down. I knew that I wasn't ready. Instead, I joined Anbu. After a few missions, Kakashi asked me if I would be willing to under take mission, a highly classified mission."

"So you became the Phantom," Sasuke finished, knowing it to be true. Naruto nodded. "But Akatsuki's gone now. Why do you still need to keep up the charade?"

"We're at war, Sasuke," Naruto said passionately. "Destroying Akatsuki did not destroy our problems. _____ had just signed a contract with Akatsuki to come after Konaha and also Suna. And then the suddenly die? ____ knew it had to be someone from Konaha who did it, especially after they knew ______ were killed in Konaha. So they decided to come after us themselves. It has been a constant assault ever since. We've lost so many.

"And it was my job to take every and all rogue nin that I could, anyone who may join _____, or even from another group like Akatsuki."

"I see," Sasuke replied, amazed at what Naruto was telling him. And in that moment, Sasuke really did see.

This was no longer the little boy who had been his constant rival and only friend, this was a man who had been hardened by war but continued to go on for those he loved the most.

"Sasuke, I-" Naruto began, irresolution flickering through his eyes.

"Don't say anything, Naruto," Sasuke said.

He stood on his knees, hands still bound, and made his way over to Naruto. Once they were practically nose to nose and he could feel Naruto's erratic breath fanning across his face, Sasuke leaned forward and placed his lips on Naruto's as he should have done so many years ago.

They had made love then, Naruto hesitantly releasing Sasuke's binds and healing his ribs enough to make sex comfortable for the both of them. And afterward, Sasuke had fallen asleep in Naruto's arms.

Naruto slipped away then, resolute for the moment in what he must do. He pulled from his discarded pants what he was seeking, a dagger that he staged above Sasuke's slumbering body.

"I knew it would come to this," Sasuke said quietly, his eyes opening. Naruto flinched then, before straddling Sasuke's nude body.

"You did?" Naruto asked, his hands shaking, tears falling from his eyes and onto Sasuke's chest.

Sasuke nodded, taking a deep breath and bringing his hand up to Naruto's face to caress his cheek. "You would never have told me so much confidential information if you had intended to let me live."

Naruto paled.

Continuing, Sasuke said, "After I made my decision, I knew I had to see you again, see if I could really go through with it. And after seeing you, after making love with you, I could never go through with it. But…

"My words are pretty. And they're just words. I know that you can never really believe them, either. What if you brought me back to the village and I go a fair trial? What if I go out and slaughtered everyone you love in their sleep? What if I slit your throat tonight while you slept, and then escaped and shared everything you told me with the enemy? You have no right to believe a single word I say, Naruto.

"So you must kill me."

Sasuke's eyes locked with Naruto's, holding them as, for once, blue and black did not clash, but rather had reached an understanding.

"I know," Naruto replied quietly. He had to concentrate with every fiber of his being to keep himself breathing in, breathing out, to keep himself from tossing aside the dagger as his heart screamed at him to do.

"But may I ask a favor of you first?" Sasuke asked, trying himself to keep his voice even. As a warrior, it was ingrained within him to fight or flee, to preserve his own life at whatever the cost. But now, the cost of living was too high and he knew his time had come. "Actually, I have to favors."

"W-what are they?" Tears began falling upon Sasuke harder, more frequently. Naruto could barely hold himself together.

"First, I want you to take my body back to Konaha. I would like to be buried with my parents."

"It's done," Naruto said, a sob escaping his lips.

"And second, when Kakashi's time as Hokage is done, I want you to say yes. Becoming Hokage was always your dream and now that it is within your grasp, you must take it."

"Hokage wasn't my only dream," Naruto whispered.

"I know," Sasuke replied. "But taking me back to Konaha will be done too."

Naruto nodded. He made his mind completely blank, filled it with only a stark whiteness that was blinding to every stray thought, of every reason he should not be doing this.

"I love you," Naruto whispered.

"I love you, Naruto," Sasuke said, his eyes staying on Naruto's blue as the dagger was plunged deep into his heart. His last thought was that it was fitting Naruto should pierce his heart. After all, the blond was the only one to every capture it, and it should stay that way always.


End file.
